Rock Rapids, Iowa — Details continue to trickle in regarding this week’s crash of a helicopter in western Lyon County.
Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep has released the names of the individuals injured in Monday’s crash, which happened as the helicopter was helping look for 300 lost cattle. He says that the pilot was Robert Krier of Sioux Falls, and the passenger was Steve Ahrendt of rural Inwood, who was the owner of the cattle. On Wednesday, Sheriff Vander Stoep said that it does look like both victims will survive. They were taken to Sioux Falls hospitals after the crash.
What happened is still largely unknown. The few details that we do have come from an Air Safety Investigator at the National Transportation Safety Board, or NTSB. According to Jennifer Rodi, witnesses say that the tail of the helicopter struck the power lines. She says a preliminary report should be out next week, but the full report including the cause of the accident will be longer in coming. She says typically those take six months from the crash date, putting it sometime in May, 2018.
Sheriff Vander Stoep says the helicopter was owned by Ride The Sky Helicopters in Sioux Falls.
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Last update, posted 11/8/17:
Rock Rapids, Iowa — The Lyon County Sheriff says more information is slow to come in about Monday’s helicopter crash in western Lyon County.
Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep said on Wednesday that he is waiting for a call from the Federal Aviation Administration.
The sheriff says at this time it does look like both victims will survive, but he has no names or ages of the victims, and no word on the cause of the crash.
He says the initial investigation by the FAA is done, but he doesn’t know if or when they are going to release their findings.
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Last update, posted 11/6/17 at 2:29 p.m:
UPDATE: Rural Inwood, Iowa — Two people injured in a helicopter crash in western Lyon County this afternoon (Monday, November 6th) were searching for loose cattle. That from Lyon County Sheriff Stewart Vander Stoep.
He tells us more.
The Sheriff says when the helicopter hit the line, there was a power outage.
According to Rock Rapids Utility Manager Jim Hoye, it was an L & O Power Coop line that feeds Rock Rapids. He says Rock Rapids has two feeds from L & O, and he says it’s possible that L & O switched feeds to get the power back on in Rock Rapids. L & O officials were unavailable for comment at the time of this writing.
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Original story:
Lyon County, Iowa — KIWA has learned that emergency crews are on the scene of a reported helicopter crash that happened early this afternoon.
Sources tell us that the helicopter apparently struck an electrical wire before crashing, southwest of West Lyon School.
We’ll provide more information on this breaking story as it becomes available.
